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September 04, 2010

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POLITICO's Ken Vogel and Giovanni Russonello dig into the money trail of the Park51 Islamic community center, and the campaign against it:

The think tank, the Center for Security Policy, which also produced an ominous Web ad opposing the mosque for the ground zero coalition, had a $4 million budget in 2008 (the last year for which it has filed tax returns).

Its chief operating officer, Christine Brim, declined to discuss her group’s donors or its support for the coalition but, in a blog post, criticized POLITICO for asking about funding for both mosque supporters and opponents — which she said “implied a moral equivalency between ‘both sides.’”

In fact, neither side’s funding is quite so clear-cut or ominous as their critics allege.

In addition to the donations from Qatar and the Saudi prince, Rauf’s nonprofits — the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement — also received a healthy dose of funding from mainstream American foundations that bankroll countless apolitical organizations.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Deak Family Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Swanee Hunt Family Foundation and the William & Mary Greve Foundation combined to give $650,000 from 2006 to 2008, according to foundation grant reports reviewed for POLITICO by the conservative Capital Research Center. ...

But there’s also big money behind the mosque opposition, as highlighted by the relationship between [David] Horowitz’s Los Angeles-based nonprofit, Jihad Watch — the website run by Spencer “dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world” — and Joyce Chernick, the wife of a wealthy California tech company founder.

Though it was not listed on the public tax reports filed by Horowitz’s Freedom Center, POLITICO has confirmed that the lion’s share of the $920,000 it provided over the past three years to Jihad Watch came from Chernick, whose husband, Aubrey Chernick, has a net worth of $750 million, as a result of his 2004 sale to IBM of a software company he created, and a security consulting firm he now owns.

A onetime trustee of the ...Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Aubrey Chernick led the effort to pull together $3.5 million in venture capital to start Pajamas Media, a conservative blog network ...

The David Horowitz Freedom Center had a budget of $4.5 million last year, according to its tax filings, of which $290,000 came from the conservative Bradley Foundation, which also gave $75,000 to the Center for Security Policy last year. Horowitz has received an average of $461,000 a year in salary and benefits over the past three years, while Spencer has pulled in an average of $140,000, according to the center’s IRS filings.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the 2008 990 filings for Chernick's charitable foundation, the Fairbrook Foundation, that shows donations to a wide range of groups, including the American Friends of Ateret Cohanim that funds Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, MEMRI, The Center for Security Policy, over $900k to the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, $150k to American Jewish Congress, ADL, the Middle East Freedom Forum Fund, another David Horowitz group the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, the pro-Israel campus advocacy group Stand With Us; $80k to Gary Bauer's "American Values," the pro-Israel media monitoring group CAMERA, $150k to the "Council for Democracy and Tolerance" of Alta Loma, CA, which listed as a fellow and senior fellow Nir Boms, a former Vice President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a former Israeli embassy official; the group is listed as promoting the "Obsession" video; the former president of the Council, Tashbih Sayyed, a Pakistani-American Shiite journalist who died in 2007, was also an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and a member of the Jihad Watch board, both also supported by Chernick's foundation; the Council for Secular Humanism; $80k to a group called "Defend the West" whose address is a UPS box in Santa Monica, CA but whose website domain is registered to Nina Cunningham of Quidlibet research and the former chair of the Illinois regional branch of the Republican Jewish Coalition's National Women's Committee who is listed on tax forms as a director of the Clarion Fund which funded the distribution of 20 million copies of the "Obsession" DVD; $50k to the Heritage Foundation; $50k to the Hudson Institute; etc. etc.

Similar donations in 2007 and 2006, including $190k in 2007 to the Hudson Institute; $200k in 2006 to the Zionist Organization of America, and $250k to ZOA in 2005; $60k in 2005 to the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. nonprofit that funds settler security and other programs in Israel, and on whose board (listed in 2008 as vice president) is Itamar Marcus, who heads Palestinian Media Watch; $25k in 2005 to fund projects by Tariq Ismail at the Council for Secular Humanism (the funding for Islamic secularism contrasting with the foundation's generous funding of Jewish religiosity, including Aish HaTorah of Los Angeles); $120k in 2005 to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, on whose board Chernick's wife Joyce Chernick served.

What just cuz a man is successful and a millionaire he is not grass roots??? and other grassroots types cant seek fruning from such willing millionaires??????????Do you even know the meaning of grassroots operations is (moeny dont grow on trees...LOL)? it means someone w/o Political power, like that one idiot or his cronies or Botox queen bee or Dinghy or any of their cronies..... Chernick may not be business grassroots but sure is political grassroots or atleast he has everyright to contribute to grassroots and be still legitmately called grassroots....

Posted By: What just cuz a man is successful and a millionaire he is not grass roots??? and other grassroots ty | September 04, 2010 at 12:58 PM

Islam is an ideology based in politics, culminating in Sharia Law. Look at Europe. Muslims close down the streets to "pray" and intimidate Parisians. You reporters are so dim in glossing over the dangers of Islam and its foreign (Saudi Arabia) funding. Wake up!

Americans also may be surprised to learn that the United States has been an active participant in mosque construction projects overseas. In April, U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso E. Lenhardt helped cut the ribbon at the 12th-century Kizimkazi Mosque, which was refurbished with assistance from the United States under a program to preserve culturally significant buildings. The U.S. government also helped save the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque in Cairo, which dates back to 642. The mosque's namesake was the Muslim conqueror of Christian Egypt, who built the structure on the site where he had pitched his tent before doing battle with the country's Byzantine rulers. For those who think the Ground Zero Mosque is an example of "Muslim triumphalism" glorifying conquest, the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque is an example of such a monument - and one paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds.
The mosques being rebuilt by the United States are used for religious worship, which raises important First Amendment questions. U.S. taxpayer money should not be used to preserve and promote Islam, even abroad. In July 2009, the Office of the Inspector General published an audit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) faith-based and community initiatives that examined whether government funds were being used for religious activities. The auditors found that while USAID was funding some religious activities, officials were "uncertain of whether such uses of Agency funding violate Agency regulations or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution" when balanced against foreign-policy objectives.
For example, our government rebuilt the Al Shuhada Mosque in Fallujah, Iraq, expecting such benefits as "stimulating the economy, enhancing a sense of pride in the community, reducing opposition to international relief organizations operating in Fallujah, and reducing incentives among young men to participate in violence or insurgent groups." But Section 205.1(d) of title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations prohibits USAID funds from being used for the rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for "inherently religious activities." It is impossible to separate religion from a mosque; any such projects will necessarily support Islam.

YAH FOLKS LETS FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL----MORE of YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK -----The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy. The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.
"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.
Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.

There is ONLY one question to ask yourself. Who, acting in the name of a certain ideology, committs 99% of the terrorist attacks in the world. You all know the answer and it's not Jihad Watch but the people building the mosque at Ground Zero, site of one of their many ''accomplishments'' - aided & abetted by their left-wing allies.

This info is indeed interesting, Laura. I always like to know where the money is coming from. But you went into much much more detail about how Mr & Mrs Chernick donate their money than about the funding for the Ground Zero Mosque/Grand Insult to Americans. For your information, Im Tirtsu, NGO Monitor and others have studied the funding given and received by the New Israel Fund. It funds a large array of anti-national, pro-Arab bodies operating in Israel, including several fake "human rights" and "civil rights" outfits, as well as giving a few crumbs to some bodies that actually help people in need, in order to provide a cover for themselves. In turn, the New Israel Fund gets millions from US citizens, including a $20 million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation a few years ago. So the anti-Israel side is quite well funded and you need not worry that the poor dears have to scrimp and save.

Ms. Rozen should provide equal time to detail federal, City and State of New York , Dutch government, Saudi and UAE funding of mega mosques at GZM and elsewhere in America. Then there is the mounting evidence of US mosque and Muslim Brotherhood front funding of terror groups like Hamas in possible violation of the IRC and Patriot Act. But this is seemingly an impossible task at The Politico or over at The Cable at Foreign Policy.com where Ms. Rozen also posts. But then she's also an unabashed proponent of having the US 'schmooze' with terrorist groups like Hamas, possible Hezbollah, too. She has been featured at NPR and "Fresh Air" with 'progressive' Terri Gross. The Chernicks should be applauded for choosing to fund websites and other anti-Jihadist initiatives like Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy informing Americans about the dangers of an Islamic Sharia State perpetrated by a Muslim Brotherhood Grand Jihad in America. It's about time that some wealthy concerned Americans did that. I assure that George Soros, doesn't. Quite the opposite. After all, mega billionaire Prince Alaweed funds Wahhabist/Salafist Da'wa at major American universities and Mother Brotherhood fronts like CAIR and ISNA here in the US and puts the squeeze on his media investments in NewsCorp and others to soft peddle patent taqiyya in Dar al Hijrah. What's the expression? What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander also. Oh, and by the way, Ms. Rozen, who authorized those Hebrew Ads paid for by USAID currently placed in Israel showing pictures of bankrupt corrupt PA officials saying, "we are your Peace partners", or words to that effect ,eh? Anyone with whom you have been holding ex parte conversations over caffe latte sessions at the coffee house across from the Obama White House in DC?

Only a Journolister and America--hating liberal like Laura Rozen would worry about where the money is coming from to fund Americans that want to find out if the Islamic 9/11 Victory Monument Shrine/Mosque going up 2 blocks away from Ground Zero, is coming from pro-terrorist America--hating groups like Al Quaeda, Hamas, Fatha, etc., etc. It would be like pro-- Japanese and Nazi America--haters wanting to set up a Victory Monument Pagoda at Ground Zero in Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor attack, demanding a investigation into where the money is coming from to fund the American groups who would be objecting to their Pagoda. I for one could care less that the Bradley Foundation, the Zionist Org. of America, or the Chernick family is supporting Americans like David Horowitz, and the 70% of all Americans who support that the Islamic Victory Monument Shrine/Mosque not be built there, but I do care where the money is coming from to fund this crass shrine to Islamic anti--American hatred.

Laura, You really must believe you will look better in a burkha ... some would agree and in a burkha you would have no column ... Islam is not about being free and you know it ... it is about following sharia law and believing in Allah ... all by force of the sword, not by grace, not by love, and not by choice.

Interesting... Ms. Rozen has no problem with Islamic terrorists funding a Mosque in our country but is terrified of Jews building housing in their own lands. Interesting...
I didn't know that JournOlist was carrying the water for Al-Qaeda and Palestinian glory, but it will be fun to watch you justify it in the future, Ms. Rozen. Good luck with that. In the meantime, we're going to look into these Muslims. It's not about rights, it's about good judgment and we wouldn't expect an unindicted co-conspirator in the world's biggest election fraud case to exercise good judgment. We'll do it without your help.

Make no mistake. While the Islamic leaderships and communities around our country-- and around the world for that matter-- all claim that the 9/11 Ground Zero Mosque/Shrine that they're trying to build there is nothing more than just another religious institution, like a Synagogue, church, or any House of Worship, and the ones opposed to it, are just a bunch of racist anti-Islamic zealots, it's not what they say it'll be. If this gets built, they'll all look at it as a monument to a great victory over the Great Satan, the U.S.A. It's the old bait and switch gambit. You get the useful--idiots like Bloomberg and Journolisters like Laura Rozen et al, on your side by telling these dopes that it's a religious issue, and that the opposition (about 70% of all Americans) are just racist Islam--haters, when your actual goal is to build a 9/11 Victory to Islam Monument, where you can rub the "Crusaders" nose in the dung with.

We were lied into the Iraq War by Israel Lobby neocons on behalf of Israel and now they are pushing for war with Iran, also for Israeli expansionism. Saddam was no threat to us and neither is Iran. Currently these same warmongers are stirring up anti-Muslim hatred, opposing mosques, etc, in preparation for war with Iran. The answer of course is Middle East peace but that's the last thing these settlement-expanders want. Meanwhile the country goes bankrupt with all these unnecessary wars.

Well Trig troother Rozen Bozo,
before you and your ilk, paid Democrat operatives that pretend to be journalist, there used to be these people called "reporters". These reporters would check into things like who is funding the Victory Mosque at Ground Zero, Why the name Cordova? Do these people support terrorist such as Hamas? But now we have JournoList like you who can't believe anyone wouldn't want a terrorist recruitment center built at the site of a national tragedy. Ms. Pelosi calls and you heel like a dog and dutifully print tripe like this. I would call you a prostitute but I do not want to disparage that honorable profession.

One of the investors in the proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York once donated to a charity which was later shut down due to its connection to Hamas.
According to an AP report on Friday, Hisham Elzanaty, 51, is among the members of a real estate partnership that paid $4.8 million for the vacant clothing store that is planned to be torn down and replaced by the Islamic center and mosque. This information was confirmed by the developer leading the project.
Critics of the Ground Zero project have pointed to a donation made by Elzanaty to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in 1999. According to tax records, Elzanaty gave $6,050 to the foundation, which was the largest Islamic charity in the US at the time. The Holy Land Foundation raised millions of dollars from Americans in the 1990s. The money was supposed to fund schools, orphanages and social welfare programs.
However, in 2001, the US government froze the foundation's assets and accused it of acting as a fundraiser for Hamas, which has been a recognized terrorist group in the States since 1995. Furthermore, in 2004, the foundation and some of its leaders were indicted on charges of supporting Hamas, and five were ultimately convicted.

Ha, journolister Laura with an article on "the money trail". Yes for some reason we hear a lot more about the "opponents" than those who actually funding this project. The real question should be the funding source of the mosque, not the opponents of it. But I guess what else would u expect from her. This sounds like it came straight from MSNBC and daily kos. Balanced indeed.

austudent doesn't think the funding source of those promoting anti-Islamic hatred is important, but our country's future is at stake here as these radical warmongers are pushing us into another unnecessary war and inspiring more anti-US terrorism. An Islamic community center promoting good interfaith relations is the best medicine.

This is supposed to upset me or what... I fail to see the logic here... Let me see, should I feel good about the Islamist project at Ground Zero because those who oppose it have are wealthy? Or should I feel good about the mosque at Ground Zero because of the wealth and capabilities of George Soros or the King of Saudi Arabia?

So what? The bottom line is that the Islamic Center is funded by the rulers of Islamic oil dictatorships that stone women for adultery, while the opposition is funded by private American citizens with (horrors!) private political opinions.
The fact that the Islamic Center is funded by major American funds doesn't launder the center, it taints the American funders with the stain of being partners with despots.

these radical warmongers are pushing us into another unnecessary war and inspiring more anti-US terrorism.: so, if we don't surrender to radical Islam, we will have more terror attacks. I though that Islam was a religion of peace.

Politico is a sham but we can't stop coming back for the laughs :) Ms Rosen may want to photoshop herself into an old RCA "Her Masters Voice" ad with Polosis' name on the record label. Another new low.

Arik, it is not an issue of surrendering. It is a matter of human decency and justice. The point is that the lies and irrational anti-Muslim hatred spewed by those protesting the Manhattan Islamic Center highlight why we are under attack by anti-American terrorists: many Muslims believe America is at war with Islam. Exhibit A is our support for Israel’s illegal occupations and persecutions. Middle East peace is crucial because it is at the root of our problems. 9/11 was a revenge attack for our unconditional support of Israel's illegal occupations, persecutions, war crimes and other atrocities. In "The 9/11 Commission Report,"(page 147), it is stated that this is why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,(KSM), mastermind of 9/11, hates us: "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.” Indeed, KSM has said that the purpose of the 9/11 attacks was to "wake the American people up." As part of his original 9/11 plan, KSM was going to land one of the planes here and then "deliver a speech condemning American policy on Israel." (The New York Times 9/15/09)
Exhibit B is the fact that we tragically morphed into Israel ourselves and began invading and occupying Muslim lands, terrorizing, maiming, and killing civilians with bombings, checkpoint shootings, targeted assassinations, indefinite detentions with torture, etc. Civilian bombing was cited by the Times Square bomber as a reason for his attacking us. Exhibit C is these protesters who spout anti-Muslim venom and demonstrate with warmongering Nazi-type signs, stirred on by neocon rabble-rousers. The peace-hating neocons aim to radicalize all Muslims against us leading to a clash of civilizations World War III. This is why they consider it so important to block this Islamic Community Center which would aim to promote peace and understanding between religions. Already there is evidence that the protests are increasing anti-American terrorist threats.

The point is that the lies and irrational anti-Muslim hatred spewed by those protesting the Manhattan Islamic Center : the real point is to know who is funding this mosque and why it is build at this specific location.

Middle East peace is crucial because it is at the root of our problems.: the war between Israel and Arab squatters occupying Jewish territories is not the root cause of radical Islam and is not the root cause of the decision to humiliate America with a victory mosque.

Middle East peace is crucial : creating a terror state is not peace, it is appeasing Arabs at the expense of Israeli citizens security and it is creating more war. Give peace a real chance, take care of unemployment in America.

Israeli/Palestinian peace is crucial because it is at the root of our problems. 9/11 was a revenge attack for our unconditional support of Israel's illegal occupations, persecutions, war crimes and other atrocities. In "The 9/11 Commission Report,"(page 147), it is stated that this is why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,(KSM), mastermind of 9/11, hates us: "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.” Indeed, KSM has said that the purpose of the 9/11 attacks was to "wake the American people up." As part of his original 9/11 plan, KSM was going to land one of the planes here and then "deliver a speech condemning American policy on Israel." (The New York Times 9/15/09)
KSM's nephew Ramzi Yousef, (whose mother was Palestinian), masterminded the 1993 World TradeCenter bombing. James Bamford in his book "A Pretext for War" explains, "His goal was to punish the United States for its support of Israel." Yousef's terrorist cell left behind a letter which "made it very clear that they were planning to return to finish what they had started at the World Trade Center." James Bamford writes," "Thus, by early 1995, terrorists had attempted to bring down the World Trade Center, were planning to blow up airliners, and were exploring the possibility of turning passenger planes into weapons of mass destruction and crashing them into American buildings......It was equally clear that the reason for the attacks was the country's support for Israel and its occupation and treatment of the Palestinians." Due to our support of Israel's illegal occupations the US has been targeted for years, as with the 1970's oil embargo. There is a May 1998 interview with bin Laden (shown on the PBS Frontline documentary "Hunting bin Laden") which took place in Afghanistan. Responding to questions from his followers as well as from ABC's John Miller, Bin Laden voiced objections to the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, saying they were there to support Jewish expansionism. Bin Laden stated, "For over half a century, Muslims in Palestine have been slaughtered and assaulted and robbed of their honor and of their property. Their houses have been blasted, their crops destroyed." "The leaders in America and in other countries have fallen victim to Jewish Zionist blackmail. They have mobilized their people against Islam and against Muslims." "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful. America has no shame...We believe that the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists are the Americans." "The American government is leading the country towards hell...We say to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests not the interests of the Jews."

Arik: Islamicphobia? This is not going to work - no one I know is afraid of Islam ... never were ... never will be. How about Christianphobia or Jewphobia? Appears to me Muslims are lot more phobic about these religions in the middle east than the Christians or Jews are? Let us all ask, why don't you and your brother muslims defend your faith without beheadings, amputations, stonings, lashings, fatwahs, airliners ran into buildings, car bombs, suicide bombings and even the sick practice of clitorral mutilation? When you and your muslim brothers do this, then there might be a chance of believing you that "Islam is of peace". In the meantime, too many of us are going to continue to call this the way we see it ... truthfully.

While Muslims are always claiming otherwise, the fact is that the Islamlic religion is one of hate, and intolerance. IT IS THEY WHO HAVE DECLARED A JIHAD (HOLY WAR) AGAINST ALL OF THE WESTERN COUNTRIES, WHICH THEY HAVE CARRIED ON FOR OVER 40 YEARS, WITHOUT ANY PROVOCATION FROM US!!! 9/11 WAS NOT THE FIRST ATTACK AGAINST US. IT WAS CLOSER TO THE ONE HUNDRED!!!

Fact, you are wrong on two points. As Philip Jenkins (The Boston Sunday Globe 3/8/09) points out, "The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran, and biblical violence is often far more extreme, and marked by more indiscriminate savagery.” This is of course the Old Testament.
For instance, Moses instructs his followers that when they reach Canaan they should annihilate those who live there: "thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canannites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee." Deuteronomy 20:16-17
According to the Old Testament, the ancient Jews believed their God wanted them to commit mass murder in order to steal land, ie religious genocide. For instance, regarding the Jews' conquest of Jericho, (Joshua 6:21) "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword."
Similarly, the Lord tells Saul "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.' (Samuel I 15:3)
And David sings to the daughter of Babylon "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:9)
Second, you say we have not provoked Muslims, but our support of Israel enables Israeli Bible-inspired atrocities. In the Gaza war crimes, Israeli rabbis played a major role in encouraging the slaughter. As reported in The New York Times 3/22/09, the military's chief rabbi Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, a West Bank settler, told the soldiers not to show mercy to the civilians, preaching that "humanistic' values should be subordinated to the law of the Torah. Gaza was portrayed as a re-enactment of Biblical conquest, slaying non-Jews without mercy at the behest of God.

It is not surprising to learn who’s behind all this anti-Islam hatemongering. For instance, mega-funders include Joyce and Aubrey Chernick who conveniently own a security consulting firm. Since stirring up anti-American hatred leads to a need for more security, business is no doubt booming. The Chernicks fund Jewish settlements in illegally occupied Arab East Jerusalem, the Zionist Organization of America, so-called “Christian” Zionist Gary Bauer, all sorts of anti-Islamic groups which make vile videos, etc. Aubrey has been a trustee of AIPAC and WINEP, both Israel Lobby hardliners.

willbeheard 10:27 PM ................No it is you who is wrong! Comparing religions past astrocities of 1,000 or 2,000 years ago to what's going on today is non-sense. I also find it interesting that you think that I'm a Christian or Jew, just because I stated the fact that Islam is a religion of hate and intolerance (I've been an atheist for over 40 years). The fact is that it has been Islam that has attacked the Western countries since about the mid-1970's, without any provocation from us. It has been Islam that has hyjacked our civilian airliners and blown them up; Islam that has bombed our African Embassies; Islam that has bombed our Marine Peacekeepers barracks in Lebanon; Islam that has bombed our Khobar Tower Apartment complex that housed Air Force personel and their families; Islam that bombed our ship the USS Cole; Islam that bombed the Berlin nightclub that was the watering hole for our military personel; Islam that bombed the Worls Trade Center's basement with a Truck bomb; Islam that bombed the Trains in Madrid; Islam that bombed the London subway's and busses; Islam that hyjacked the Cruise Ship Achille Laure; Islam that has murdered thousands of innocents just because they didn't believe, or were non-Muslims that happened to fall into their hands, and on and on and on. The bottom line is that it has been Islam that has waged an unprovoked war against us long, long before their barbarian 9/11 attack that the Islamic defenders like you are trying to spin as just a retalliation for our attack on Iraq. My point is that it is Islam that has been the worlds terrorists for at least 40 years, and it is they that are the uncivilized savages to make their superstitious nonsensical religion the only one on the planet. AND THAT'S A FACT!!!

Fact, as I pointed out above, the Bible-inspired Israeli expansionists' persecution of the Palestinians is ongoing. Your list of revenge attacks were all provoked. For instance 9/11 was a revenge attack for our unconditional support of Israel's illegal occupations, persecutions, war crimes and other atrocities. In "The 9/11 Commission Report,"(page 147), it is stated that this is why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,(KSM), mastermind of 9/11, hates us: "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.” Indeed, KSM has said that the purpose of the 9/11 attacks was to "wake the American people up." As part of his original 9/11 plan, KSM was going to land one of the planes here and then "deliver a speech condemning American policy on Israel." (The New York Times 9/15/09)
Regarding Lebanon, in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon hoping to set up a puppet government favorable to Israel and, of course, favorable to Israel's occupation of Palestine. The US and other nations were dragged into Lebanon, supposedly as peace-keepers. However, the US ended up participating in a civil war, firing shells at Muslim villages. Robert Fisk writes, "But the moment the Sixth Fleet opened fire to help Gemayel's forces, the Marines in Beirut would become participants in the civil war...would have aligned themselves with the Phalange in open war against the Muslims of Lebanon." ("Pity the Nation" p. 505) It was the Phalange which had massacres hundreds of helpless Palestinians trapped in refugee camps at Sabra and Chatila in 1982 as their sponsors, the Israeli troops, stood by and watched. It was then not surprising that 241 American marines were killed in 1983.
In an October 2004 tape, Bin Laden stated, "Unlike what Bush says that we hate freedom, let him tell us why didn't we attack Sweden, for example." He said that he decided to attack the US towers while observing the 1983 Israeli bombing of towers in Beirut which symbolized the "injustice and inflexibility of the American/Israeli alliance towards his people in Palestine and Lebanon."
for you to derive your information about Muslims from Chernick-backed sites is precisely analogous to Germans getting their information about Jews from Goebbels.

I gotta say it. There are a lot of misinformed people on this blog. Now everyone gets access to the same info I do. The media. The fact is that the ignorant who think this community center is a shrine to the success of terrorists are mentally out in right field. Does this community center have an agenda? Yes. But what is it that they chose this spot to build upon. I know that it is to drive a wedge between the "terrorists" and mainstream Islam. And I'm not surprised. If I was a mainstream Christian, I would want to separate myself as much as possible from the (for example) Ku Klux Klan (organizations that espouse hate in the name of religion). What better way of doing that than to build a multicultural community center nearby the site where so many Americans lost their lives to criminals. It's like you're telling the terrorists, "Screw you. This is our America and you will have no impact on how we run our country.". As far as the people who like to make up things regarding Shariah and history, I suggest you learn about these things first before you speak. Did you know that Christians and Jews used to invoke Shariah in regards to issues like laws for the community, and freedom of religion when they felt their rights were being infringed upon in Islamic lands. This is because freedom of religion is one of the rights guaranteed by Shariah law. Just the fact that you don't know this shows that you need to learn more. The American Constitution and Shariah law have a lot in common. But you rely on the lunacy of mobs with machine guns standing by as a woman is being stoned to death and call it Shariah. It's a mob with machine guns. That's why the woman is being stoned. Not because of Shariah law.